Equipment for producing grooved rods or the like



EQUIPMENT FOR PRODUCING GROOVED RODS OR THE LIKE Filed 001. 17, 1955 March 22, 1960 v. RETTERATH 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR mzenzm ezwazk JWW ATTORNEYS March 22, 1960 v. RETTERATH 2,929,282

EQUIPMENT FOR PRODUCING GROOVED RODS OR THE LIKE Filed Oct. 17. 1955 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR ORNEYS March 22, 1960 v, RETTERATH EQUIPMENT FOR PRODUCING GROOVED RODS OR THE LIKE Filed Oct. 17, 1955 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 I N V E N T O R v VaZenizhReZZQmZ/i/ ATTORNEYS March 22, 1960 v. RETTERATH EQUIPMENT FOR PRODUCING GROOVED RODS OR THE LIKE 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Oct. 17, 1955 INVENTOR Va/enia'n Re%z=ad% ATTORNEYS a V. RETTERATH March 22, 1960 EQUIPMENT FOR PRODUCING GROOVED RODS OR THE LIKE Filed Oct. 17, 1955 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 2 NHEI Q o N k V M V Qm Q QEI

Q A a w 2 A Q mu v QEI INVENTOR Valenfinfeiemiz/ ATTORNEYS United States Pateint EQUIPMENT FOR PRODUCING GROOVED RODS OR THE LIKE Valentin Retterath, Iversheim, Germany, assignor to Groov-lin Corporation, a corporation of New York Application October 17, 1955, Serial No. 540,889

Claims priority, application Germany October 22, 1954 8 Claims. (CI. 80-40) As conductive to an understanding of the invention, it is noted that where a pin or rod has a longitudinal groove formed therein by means of a grooving wheel pressed thereagainst, during relative longitudinal'movement between said pin and said wheel, and radial penetration of the pin by the wheel is efifected and the wheel is withdrawn from the pin during such relative longitudinal movement, both ends of the groove thus formed will be relatively long and pointed and the groove will not be of uniform depth throughout substantially its entire length which is undesirable.

It is accordingly among the objects of the invention to provide a relatively simple equipment which is strong and durable and not likely to become out of order and which will automatically form longitudinal grooves in a pin or rod of substantially uniform width and depth throughout the entire length of the groove.

According to the invention, the pin or rod to be grooved is first moved into registry with a grooving wheel and while the pin is stationary, the grooving wheel is moved radially against the pin to make a depression of desired depth. Thereupon relative longitudinal movement is effected between the pin and the grooving wheel to form a groove of desired length in such pin and after such groove is formed and while the pin is stationary the groovingwheel is moved away therefrom and thereupon the finished pin is then expelled from the equipment and the cycle repeated.

More specifically, the pin is pushed by an associated plunger into registry with a grooving wheel and the plunger is then restrained from exerting further pressure against the pin so that the latter will remain stationary. The grooving wheel is then moved radially against the pin to penetrate the latter to the desired depth and thereupon the plunger is released to again exert pressure against the pin so that as it is advanced, a groove will be formed in such pin. wheel is moved radially away from the pin and the plunger is also withdrawn therefrom. Thereafter another pin is moved into alignment with the plunger and the cycle repeated, initial movement of such succeeding pin into registry with the grooving wheel expelling the finished pin from the equipment.

In the accompanying drawings in which are shown one or more of various possible embodiments of theseveral features of the invention,

Fig. l is a front elevational view of the equipment at the beginning of an operating cycle with parts broken away and partly in cross section,

'Fig. la is a view taken along line 1a1a of Fig. 1,

Fig. 2 is a plan view taken along line 2-2 of Fig. 1 with parts broken away and partly in cross section,

Figs. 3 to 8 inclusive are views similar to Figs. 1, la and 2, showing the equipment during various stages of hte cycle of operation,

Fig. 9 is a fragmentary side elevational view of another embodiment of the invention at the beginning of an operating cycle, and

When the groove is completed, the grooving 2,929,282 Patented lV lar. 22,

Figs. 10 to 12 inclusive are views similar to Fig. 9 showing the equipment during various stages of the cycle of operation.

Referring now to the drawings, as illustratively shown in Figs. 1, 1a and 2, the equipment comprises a supporting member such as a guide ring 1 having a plurality of bores 41 adjacent its periphery in each of which a pin 2 to begrooved is positioned. The guide ring 1 is mounted on an axle 1 and has conventional means (not shown) to efiect step by step rotation thereof successively to bring, the bores 41 into alignment with a plunger or push piece 42.

The plunger 42 desirably comprises a cylindrical bar 6 of diameter less than that of bores 41 and which is mounted at one end of a rod 5, also of diameter less than that of bores 41 and longitudinally aligned therewith, the

diameter of bar 6 being less than that of rod 5 to define a stop shoulder 43 at the junction therebetween. Aflixed to the other end of the rod 5 is a piston 44 which is slidably mounted in a socket 4 positioned in a reciprocable press bar'3. To retain the piston 44 in socket 4 a threaded plug 45 is provided which is screwed into the socket 4 and which has a bore '46 through which the rod 5 extends. The rod 5 is normally urged to extended position by means of a coil spring 24 positioned in socket 4 and reacting against the piston 44, the coil spring permitting the rod 5 to telescope into the socket 4, limited by the abutment of an axial stud 47 on the piston against the end of the socket 4.

Positioned beneath the guide ring 1 is the grooving mechanism K which comprises a rigidly mounted supporting plate 25 having"an axial bore 48 in which a clamping chuck or holding sleeve 7 for the pin 2 is pro-' spaced 120 degrees apart. Each ,of the pusher bars at its inner end mounts an associated grooving wheel 16, 16" and 16", each rotatable on an axis at right angles to the bore 49 of sleeve 7 which has a plurality of. slots 51: through which an associated grooving wheel may be moved to engage a pin 2 to form a groove therein.

To effect movement of the grooving pusher bars toward the pin 2 a ring 11 is provided rotatable about the center axis; 26 of the equipment, and encompassing the supporting plate 25. The ring 11 mounts a plurality of cam: members 52 illustratively three in number which are normally radially aligned with an associated pusher bar.

The cam members 52 are slidably mounted and their radial position may be adjusted by means of an adjustment screw 27 extending through the ring 11 to set the depth of the grooves to be made in the pin 2.

Each of the cam members 52 carries a roller 12 which, through a roller 13 movably mounted on supporting plate 25 will react against a roller 14 carried by each of the pusher bars to move the latter radially inward when the ring 11 is rotated so that the grooving wheel carried thereby will be forced against the pin 2 to form a depression therein.

- To effect rotation of the ring 11 to form the depression in the pin 2, a substantially L-shaped bracket 8 is affixed to the press bar 3 and has a vertical control rail 9, the

position of which may be vertically adjusted, which upon downward movement of the press bar 3 from the position shown in Fig. 1, will engage a roller 10 carried by the ring 11 on a pin 53 extendingradially therefrom. The control; rail 9 is of reduced width at its lower end 54 and the outer edge thereof is curved between its upper portion 50 and its lower an 54' to form a curved depression 54 at its lower end so that when the press bar 3 is lowered and the edge of rail 9 abuts. against roller 10, which is retained against such edge by a spring 5 the ring 11 will be rotated slightly in a counterclockwise direction from the position shown in Fig. 2 to the position shown in Fig. 6. The control rail 9 is desirably interchangeable so that the amount of movement of ring 11 may be predetermined to control the depth of the groove in pin 2. The initial movement of the pin 2 from the bore 41 in ring 1, is efiected' by downward movement of press bar 3 which forces bar 6 of plunger 42 against pin 2 to move it from the bore 41 (Fig. 1) into the bore 49 of sleeve 7 (Fig. 3). The spring 24 is of sufiicient strength to prevent'telescoping movement of rod 5 into socket 4 during such initial movement of pin 2 and to move the rod into sleeve 7 against the force of the associated means to hold the pin in the sleeve. I

In order that the pin v2 be restrained from longitudinal movement during the radial penetration thereinto by the grooving wheels 16', 16" and 16", so that the depth of the grooves maybe predetermined, means are provided to" restrain downwardrnovement of the pin 2 when the pusher. bars are moved radially by the slight rotary movement of ring 11. H I

To this end, as illustratively shown in Fig. 1, a support 20 is provided slida bly mounted on vertical pins 56 carried by the grooving mechanism K and the position of which may be adjusted in height by set screws 57.

Slidably mounted for radial movement on the support 20, which has an axial opening 58 aligned with rod 5 and bar 6, is' a locking bar 19 which has a slot 59 aligned with the'opening 58. The bar 19 is normally urged radially inward to bring the edge 61 of slot 59 into alignment with stop shoulder 43 of the plunger 42 to limit the down ward movement of said plunger as shown in Fig. 3.

I To release the plunger 42, the locking bar 19 has an opening 62 therethrough with a beveled cam edge 63 aligned with an opening 64 in support 20. The press bar 3 mounts a release bar 22 which upon downward movement of the press bar 3 will enter the opening '64 to abut against the beveled cam edge 63 to move the locking bar 19 radially outward against the tension of coil spring 23, so that the. edge 61 of slot 59 wil be moved elear of shoulder 43 as shown in Fig. 7 to permit further downward movement of plunger 42.

In the operation of the equipment, the press bar 3 is moved downwardly from the position shown in Fig. 1

until the shoulder 43 abuts against edge 61 of slot 59 in locking bar 19 as shown in Fig.3. As a result of such movement the rod 5 will force the pin 2 from the bore 41 in ring 1 into the bore 49 in sleeve 7. With further downward movement of the press bar 3, as the plunger 42 is restrained from downward movement by the abutment of shoulder 43 against edge 61, the piston 44 will move into socket 4 against the tension of coil spring 24.' At such time, the edge of the control rail 9 will move against the roller 10 and with continued downward movement of the press bar 3, the ring 11, to which the roller 10 is mounted, will be slightly rotated in a counterclockwise direction from the position shown in Fig. 2 to the position shown in Fig. 6. v

As a result of such rotation of ring 11, the roller 12 will be moved from the position shown in Fig. 2, past the roller 13 to the position shown in Fig. 6, forcing the roller 13 against roller 14 so that the presser bars 15 will be moved radially inward. Consequently, the grooving wheels 16 carried by the presser bars will be forced the desired depth into the pin 2.

At this time further rotary movement of ring 11 ceases as the roller 10 is riding on the flat portion of be. released and as the stud 47 of piston 44 is abutting against the end of socket 4, the plunger 42 will be moved downwardly forcing the pin 2 in the corresponding direction so that grooves of the desired length will be formed therein.

Thereupon, the downward movement of press bar 3 is stopped so that the pin 2 will remain in fixed position and the press bar 3 is raised to its normai standby position shownin Fig. 1. The ring 1 is then rotated one step to bring the next pin 2 carried thereby into alignment with the bore of sleeve]. I i V As a result of. such upward movement of the press bar 3, the depression in guide rail 9 will be moved into alignment with roller '10 and the coil spring 55 will rotate the ring 11 in a clockwise direction to restore the rollers 12, 13, 14 to their original position shown in Fig. 2. Consequently, the pressure exerted by these rollers against the pusher bars 15 willbe relieved and suitable means (not shown move the pusher bars radially outward to withdraw the grooving wheels from engagement with the stationary pin 2.

The operating cycle above described is then repeated, the forcing of the next pin 2 into sleeve *7 in turn ejecting the previously grooved pin 2. v

The embodiment shown in Figs. 9 to 12 inclusive is sirnilar to the embodiment of Figs. 1 to 8. In this embodiment, the threaded plug 45 in socket4 has a resilient collar which frictionally engages the portion of rod 5 in the socket 4 to restrain sliding movement thereof. At the junction between rod 5 and bar 6 a stop collar 18 is provided which is beveled on opposed surfaces thereof, said collar 18 being of diameter such that it may readily pass through the opening 58 in support 20 (Figs. 9-12).

The support 20 has at least a pair of spring urged radially movable locking bars 19 with beveled ends 66' which normally are in the path of movement of the collar 18.

In the operation of the embodiment shown in Figs. 9 to 12 when the press bar 3 is initially moved downwardly to force pin 2 into sleeve 7, the resilient collar 65 will prevent sliding movement of rod 5 of plunger 42 into socket 4. When the bar 6 of plunger 43 has been moved sufficiently to bring collar 18 into engagement with the beveled ends 66 of locking bars 19 as shown in Fig. 10, further downward movement of plunger 42 will be restrained. it

With continued downward movement of press bar 3, as plunger 42 is restrained from downward movementby locking bars 19, the clamping action of collar 18 will cause the piston 44 of plunger 42 to move into socket 4 until it abuts against the end thereof as shownin Fig. 11.

As previously described, with respect to the embodiment of Figs. 1 to 8, downward movement of guide rail 9 will'at this time cause ring 11 to rotate to move the grooving wheels 16 into engagement with stationary rod 2 to form depressions therein as shown in Fig. 11.

Thereupon, with further downward movement of the press bar 3, the collar 18 will be forced past the spring urged locking bars 19 to the position shown in Fig. 12 so that the plunger 42 will force the pin 2 through sleeve 7 to form grooves of the desired length.

When the press bar 3 is then moved upwardly to its standby positionshown in Fig.9, the grooving wheels 16 will be moved out of engagement with the stationary pin 2 as previously described and the collar 18' will be restrained from upward movement by the locking bars 19. Consequently, the piston 44 of plunger 42 will move downwardly in the socket 4 until it abuts against plug 45 at which time further upward movement of press bar 3 will cause the collar 18 to earn past spring urged locking bars 19. i

' In the embodiments shown, the rollers12, 13, 14 have pins at each end which extend into corresponding openings to mount such rollers. If desired, the portions of the rollers in engagement maybe provided with meshing teeth t shown) t ct t desired movement of the rollers and as the rollers only rotate slightly they could be segmental instead of cylindrical.

As many changes could be made in the above construction, and many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope of the claims, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. Equipment for forming grooves in pins or the like comprising a supporting member having a bore into which such pin may be positioned, a holding member having a bore aligned with the bore in said supporting member, means to exert pressure against such pin to move the latter from the bore in said supporting member into the bore in said holding member, said holding member having a slot therethrough providing access to the bore thereof, means releasably to restrain application of pressure by said pin moving means against such pin after such rod has been moved into the bore in said holding member, a grooving wheel, means mounting said wheel for radial movement toward said slot, means after such pin has been moved into the bore of said holding member to move said wheel through the slot in said holding member into engagement with such stationary pin means to push the pin generally tangentially of the grooving wheel to form a groove in such pin, and means to move said Wheel radially out of said slot away from such pin.

2. The combination set forth in claim 1 in which said pin moving means is a plunger, the means releasably to restrain application of pressure by said plunger against such pin comprises a support having an opening aligned with said plunger for movement of the latter therethrough, stop means on said plunger, a spring urged locking bar slidable on said support and normally in the path of movement of said stop and means to move said locking bar out of the path of movement of said stop.

3. The combination set forth in claim 1 in which said pin moving means is a plunger, the means releasably to restrain application of pressure by said plunger against such pin comprises a support having an opening aligned with said plunger for movement of the latter therethrough, a lug fixed to said plunger and having a beveled cam surface, and a spring urged locking bar slidable on said support, said bar being beveled near its inner end and normally in the path of movement of said lug.

4. The combination set forth in claim 1 in which the means to move such pin comprises a plunger adapted to abut at one end with such pin, a reciprocable member, having a socket carried thereby, said reciprocable member being movable toward and away from the supporting member, means slidably mounting said plunger at its other end in said socket, a coil spring in said socket reacting against the end of the latter and the associated end of the plunger to restrain movement of said plunger into said socket, the means releasably to restrain application of pressure by said plunger against said pin comprises a support having an opening aligned with said plunger, stop means on said plunger, a restraining bar slidably mounted on said support, resilient means normally urging said restraining bar into the path of movement of said stop, and means carried by said reciprocable member to move said restraining bar out of the path of movement of said stop when said reciprocable member has moved a predetermined distance toward said supporting member.

5. The combination set forth in claim 4 in which said support has an additional opening therethrough, said restraining bar has a slot aligned with said opening, said slot being beveled at one end, and the means carried by said reciprocable member comprises a lug movable through said additional opening and adapted to abut against the beveled end of said slot to effect movement of said restraining bar out of the path of movement of said stop.

6. The combination set forth in claim 1 in which the means to move such pin comprises a plunger aligned with such pin, a reciprocable member having a socket carried thereby, said reciprocable member being movable toward and away from the supporting member, means slidably mounting said plunger at its other end in said socket, a resilient collar in said socket frictionally engaging said plunger to restrain movement of said plunger, the means releasably to restrain application of pressure by said plunger against said pin comprises a support having an opening aligned with said plunger for movement of the latter therethrough, said plunger having a stop shoulder, a restraining bar slidable on said support, said bar being beveled near its inner end, resilient means normally urging the beveled end of said bar into the path of movement of said stop, said resilient means exerting greater force than the resilient stop, whereby when said stop engages the beveled part of said restraining bar, the plunger will be released for further advance of said plunger and said pin.

7. Equipment for forming grooves in pins or the like comprising a supporting plate having an axial opening, a holding sleeve mounted in said opening, said sleeve having a bore and a plurality of circumferentially spaced slots leadinginto said bore, a plurality of pusher bars movable radially on said supporting plate and aligned respectively with said slots, a grooving wheel mounted at the inner end of each pusher bar and movable through an associated slot, a pin supporting member having a bore aligned with the bore of said holding sleeve, a support positioned above said supporting plate, said support having an opening therethrough aligned with the bore of said holding sleeve, a reciprocable member having a socket carried thereby, a pin moving plunger slidably mounted at one end in said socket, and extending through the opening in said support, resilient means releasably restraining movement of said plunger into said socket, stop means on said plunger, spring urged means on said support normally in the path of movement of said stop, a ring encompassing said supporting plate, means carried by said reciprocable member to effect rotary movement of said ring around said supporting plate after said plunger has moved such pin into the holding sleeve and said stop abuts against said spring urged means to restrain movement of said plunger, whereupon said plunger will move into said socket against the force exerted by the associated restraining means, means controlled by the rotary movement of said ring to move said pusher bars radially inward to effect penetration of such pin by said grooving wheels, means carried by said reciprocable member to move said spring urged means out of engagement with said stop to permit further movement of said plunger to effect movement of such pin through said sleeve, whereby said grooving wheels will form grooves in such pin and means upon movement of said reciprocable member away from said supporting member to effect radial movement of said wheels away from such pin.

8. The combination set forth in claim 7 in which resilient means are provided to restore said ring to its original position to effect radial movement of said wheels away from such rod.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,376,654 Braendel May 22, 1945 FOREIGN PATENTS 268,622 Great Britain Apr. 7, 1927 726,563 Germany Oct. 16, 1942 892,849 Germany Oct. 12, 1953 

